(Credits: Netflix)

Holiday rom-com season is officially here, and so are we with the must-watch Netflix rom-coms to test your emotional stability. There is something about the beginning of winter and thus the holidays that gets you to make questionable decisions in December. But we feel it’s time to start early.

You have to agree that it hits harder than regular romance because of all the warmth you want, physically and emotionally. Lucky for you, we have done the research and got you five films that understand the assignment: complicated love, awkward reunions, last-minute confessions, airport goodbyes and every unrealistic winter fantasy we secretly want for ourselves.

And honestly, at this point, Netflix knows us too well. You give people snow, heartbreak, a warm fireplace and someone standing in a hallway holding hot cocoa with too much eye contact… You know the holiday clichés, and suddenly everyone believes in romance again. And these films are not subtle at all. They are full of all the stereotypes and predictable elements, and that’s the reason why they are called “comfort watches”, because they are here to give you comfort, distraction, and most importantly, seasonal delusion that carries you through the cold months.

So if you are in the mood for a holiday crush, maybe a cute disaster, or a couple that should have kissed twenty minutes earlier, this list is basically your December lifesaver.

Five holiday Netflix rom-coms just for you

A Merry Little Ex-Mas (Steve Carr, 2025)

If you love a good friends-enemies-friends energy, this one is going to feel uncomfortably familiar. Kate and Everett have this perfectly polite, post-divorce situation happening until she walks into their last shared family Christmas and realises Everett has already moved on. And it is not subtle at all. The man has invited his new girlfriend to the holiday festivities. Nothing like being upgraded from wife to… observer.

But the fun begins when Kate meets Chet, the attractive younger guy who shows up at the exact wrong (or right) moment. Suddenly, she has a chance to shake things up, maybe prove something, maybe feel something, or maybe just enjoy the attention she deserves. The best part is watching Everett pretend he is completely calm while very obviously not being calm at all. The snow is falling, the egos are bruising, the feelings are resurfacing, and you already know someone is going to realise what they threw away a little too late.

A Christmas Prince (Alex Zamm, 2017)

A Christmas Prince is the perfect movie to put on when you want your brain to melt into a warm sugar cookie. It has a journalist who absolutely should not be snooping around a palace, but does it anyway and ends up stumbling into a royal? Umm, dreamy much? So it starts when Amber arrives in Aldovia, thinking she is about to write the story of her career, and instead she is suddenly pretending to be a tutor, bonding with a princess, and catching feelings for a prince who looks intimidating in photos but is actually the softest man alive. Classic holiday behaviour, Amber.

This film leans into almost every romantic fantasy you have ever had with someone belonging to royalty. You get the grand staircase moments, and there are the palace secrets, and that slow build where Amber realises she is way too invested for someone who was supposed to file a report and go home. And once Richard starts letting his guard down, it becomes impossible not to root for them. So leave everything because it is time for this film to brainwash you into believing a royal Christmas romance is a completely reasonable life plan.

Our Little Secret (Stephen Herek, 2024)

A Lindsay Lohan Christmas rom-com where she is not a child but the lead? From 2024? Count us in. If you enjoy the rom-coms where the universe refuses to mind its own business, this one is designed for you. Avery and Logan dated forever, broke up, moved on, became sensible adults… And then December decides to throw them into the same house for the holidays. Not metaphorically. Literally the same house. With their new partners. Sounds a bit similar to A Merry Little Ex-Mas, right? But here is the twist: their respective new partners happen to be siblings. And it is exactly the kind of coincidence that would never happen in real life but makes absolute sense in a holiday film.

What makes it fun is how quickly all that “we’re over it” confidence cracks. Avery walks in thinking she has everything under control, then one family dinner later, she is remembering exactly why Logan used to pull her in without trying. They tiptoe around their past, try too hard to look unbothered, and end up in situations that make it easily clear the feelings are not exactly gone. Add holiday pressure, and suddenly you are watching two people realise that timing is complicated.

Christmas as Usual (Petter Holmsen, 2023)

This film is for anyone who has ever brought someone home for the holidays and immediately regretted introducing them to their family. It is what happens to Thea when she takes Jashan to Norway to meet her mother, hoping for a sweet cultural exchange, and instead walks straight into a winter festival of confusion. It turns out her family has traditions that require full emotional stamina. Jashan is trying his absolute best to keep up, and every interaction has that awkward energy which makes it more com than rom. It is affectionate, sure, but it also has that tension that makes you clutch a pillow.

And then things get even more complicated. Jashan discovers that Thea left out one tiny detail, and that is her long-term ex living right next door. It gets even more unsolved tension from the past involved. Watching poor Jashan try to navigate cultural gaps while tackling a perfectly timed ex of Thea from the past is comforting in a strange way, because you just want both of them to win. And by the end, you genuinely care about whether this couple can survive a Norwegian Christmas.

Last Christmas (Paul Feig, 2019)

Ah, Last Christmas. We are sure most of you might have watched this cute rom-com with a heartbreaking ending; yet, you can’t complete a Netflix holiday rom-com list without it. It starts with Kate, who is drifting through life after a rough year, working as an elf in a Christmas shop and pretending she is fine, even though she clearly is not. Then appears Tom, our mysterious hero, who is somehow always in the right place at the right time. He walks her through the parts of London she has stopped noticing and eventually nudges her back toward the version of herself she thought she lost.

The magic of the film is how it peels all the layers one by one. Tom becomes this steady presence who shows Kate the moments of warmth she had convinced herself she did not deserve. Their connection grows in a way that feels natural, and you start rooting for Kate to let herself soften again. In the end, you will realise we all need (and deserve) someone like Tom in our current lives who can guide us through things while being hella supportive.